IMAGINE THE POSSIBILITIES

Do you ever look into the deep green shadows of a primeval forest and wonder what those secret depths hold? Do you like to write about your new and inventive discoveries while sipping a glass of fragrant wine? Do you enjoy the creative process? Then I hope you will stop a spell, enjoy the adventure, and travel with me as we imagine the possibilities...

Search This Blog

Saturday, August 1, 2015

August has slammed into Tallahassee with record high
temperatures guaranteed to sizzle your brain. Another way to ramp up the heat,
is with a bit of romance in your novel. Jude Deveraux is an expert at writing
steamy romances. I had the opportunity to meet her at the Romance Writers
Annual Conference in New York City this past July. Talk about hot, hot, hot!

Jude Deveraux is a multi-million dollar earning author of
romances that have many folks curling their toes. In a class I attended, Ms.
Deveraux shared tips on her writing style. I thought I’d share them with you:

Get a notebook – keep everything about your novel in the
notebook.Yes, you can do this on-line,
but do print it out and insert it in a notebook.

Start with a question or statement – I want to write about
domestic violence, PTSD. . .What if -

Make a name chart of your characters in this story. Use
different sounds and letters for the names.If you have a well-known character in another story or series, do not
use that name or one that sounds close to it. Doing so can be confusing to your
reader.

Make an age chart – where they were born, when they were
born, any pertinent data. Figure out your character’s age during the time of
your story. Ms. Deveraux also cuts out pictures of people in magazines, or
prints the pictures from her computer who look like her characters.

Set up a day-to-day calendar of what happens, who in
involved, what they are doing.You can
do this as you write your story.

If you don’t like your character – kill them! If you’ve
gotten tired of your character, you can bet your reader has, too.

Yes, characters take over Ms. Deveraux’s novels – you have
to follow them, trust that the habits and traits you gave these characters are
working. “I feel what my characters feel. Cry when they do, laugh when they
do.”

Make floor plans of houses in your books, sometimes, you
have to plan out the street they live on, the towns they live in. Ms. Deveraux
obtains house plans from the Internet. Tips: Modern plans: www.ePlans.com. Historic American Building Plans: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/hh/.
England real estate has house plans on line, including the history of these houses:
www.Savills.com.

You have to change with the times. Ms. Deveraux said that
part of her longevity is listening to other people. You have to trust people in
the business. Your agent and publisher WANT you to make money – that’s how they
make theirs.

Finally, when asked what keeps her motivated, Ms. Deveraux
said: “I just have stories in my head, I have to get them out. I take a pen and
paper with me everywhere. I’ll stop in the middle of the grocery store to jot
down something that struck a chord. I’ll pull over and make a few notes. I
don’t go anywhere without writing implements.

I hope this helps you with your writing and inspires you to
work on your novel.

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Not you, Dipster Cat, you're safe. I'm talking about some of the words in my novel!

So you’ve written
the great American Novel and are ready to submit it to a publisher, an agent,
or even publish it yourself. STOP! First, YOU MUST HIRE A PROFESSIONAL EDITOR! Please
do not assume your friends, critique group, mom, dad, or even you can properly
edit your novel. They can’t. You can’t.

Most professional
editors ask for a sample of your novel before quoting their price for editing.
This is the norm. They are not out to milk you of money. What they are doing is
charging you according to how much time they will need to invest in working on
your book. You can bring this price down by editing on your own as much as
possible.Below are some common things
that we can fix before we send our Magnus Opus to be edited.

-ly – Words
ending in ly should be used like pepper flakes – only in small quantities. You
are a tremendous author. Rewrite. I used ly words like sand on the beach in my
first novel. Took me forever to get those buggers out.

-ing – Same as ly
words. These things breed – I’m just saying…

Was – Nope, don’t
need it. This is passive voice. Again, rewrite. You can do better.

Pronouns – Be
careful when using pronouns. Particularly when you have two characters of the
same gender. The reader should not have to struggle to understand which
individual you are speaking of.

That – Nine times
out of ten, this word is just not necessary. Take it out!

Read your book
aloud. With feeling. Fix what doesn’t flow, or highlight the section with a
bright color so you can go back and take care of the rough spots. A novel is
like a symphony, your words should crescendo and ebb with the mood you want to
impart. I like to say read it to the cat, not the dog. Your dog will think you
are William Shakespeare, J.K. Rowling, Ilona Andrews, or Steve Berry. The cat
won’t put up with any crap – read it like a cat! If you have a Kindle, or a
Kindle app, you can send it to your Kindle and read your writing like you’d
read a published novel. Believe me when I say that it makes a
difference.

Do not be afraid
to cut sections out of your novel – extended backstory – too much exposition. I know you love a certain character. However, is this character forwarding the
plot? If not take the sucker out! Think of excess characters or words as
vampires – if they don’t have a stake in the plot – stake them and throw them
in a separate document of bits and pieces. Maybe you can use this character in
a different novel or short story. In other words – kill that baby!

There are many
more things you can do to improve your writing. Google writing tips – everyone
has an opinion. Find the ones that you need to use, and go for it.

Do as much
editing as you can before sending to an editor. This will improve your writing
skills, and cut down on costs for the editing we all need.

The Tallahassee Writers Association has a
plethora of professional editors. Check our webpage at www.twaonline.org, and give them a call.
Or check your local writers association. I'm sure they want to help you become a better writer.

So you’ve written your book, and are ready to
share your writing with the world. What do you do? Who do you go to for help in
this endeavor?

Barbara Joe Williams simplifies the process for
publishing and marketing your masterpiece. In easy to follow steps, Williams
gently holds the reader’s hand and guides the aspiring author through setting
up an office, what type of license is needed, and even provides a list of
supplies. She moves on to offer advice on how to set up your books, standard
sizes, formatting, and designing the book cover, to finally getting your book
in stores, and marketing. Each chapter follows the previous one in steps that
make total sense and lends what I’d thought an agonizing process, a feat that
feels possible and promising.

Williams
is an Amazon bestselling author, indie publisher, and motivational speaker living
in Tallahassee, Florida. She is a Navy veteran, a graduate of Tallahassee
Community College, and Florida A & M University. Barbara is also the
founder of Amani Publishing, LLC (2004), and the co-founder of the Tallahassee
Authors Network since September 2008.

She
has published books for over thirty authors as well as herself. Williams is
generous with her knowledge of the publishing business. Reading this updated
version, I felt as though she were sitting beside me and guiding me. Her
chapters are clear and concise. Each chapter ends with a checklist that
reiterates information learned in that chapter, and helps the reader plan the
next step in publishing their own work.

Williams
states that yes, there are other thicker books with more detail, but I’m not
going there. Her compact e-book gives encouragement as well as information. She
provides links and address to publishing houses, printers, types of programs
and software you might need to handle the publishing and marketing of your
book.

Williams
recommends using an editor and processing your writing so you place before the
world the best you can do. She warns that pride goes before a fall – you have
to listen to your editor. Williams follows her own advice. Her book is
error-free. She has the pages set so they are easy to read and formatted to be
pleasing to the eye.

If
you want to publish and market your own book, then download this one. You won’t
regret it. Ms. Williams says she has no plans to provide “A Writers Guide to
Publishing & Marketing” in paper – I hope she changes her mind. I’d
certainly place her book on my resource shelf, right next to my copies of Stephen
King and Ray Bradbury’s books on writing. [Addendum: This book is now available in paperback!]

Ray
Bradbury said, “If we listened to our intellect, we'd never have a love affair.
We'd never have a friendship. We'd never go into business, because we'd be
cynical. Well, that's nonsense. You've got to jump off cliffs all the time and
build your wings on the way down.” This is what Barbara Joe Williams does for
writers. She gives us wings to fly on our own.

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

A book for the nature lover, researcher,
bicyclist, and hiker – anyone who traverses the Florida landscape and pauses to
say – what’s that plant?

Walter Kingsley Taylor, professor emeritus of
biology at the University of Central Florida, has traipsed all over Florida
gathering information for Florida
Wildflowers. Taylor is also author of A
Guide to Florida Grasses.

Florida
Wildflowers sorts plants into regions such as hardwood-forested uplands,
pine flatwoods, wetlands, and more, covering the entire state of Florida, and
making each search to identify plants a joy. It’s easy. Plants are photographed
in their natural state. Books that have line drawings of plants tend to all
look the same to me. This is not an issue in Taylor’s book. The author does not
stop at wildflowers – but photographs and writes about trees, shrubs, and
pretty much anything that grows. If you are out on the trail biking or hiking
and spot a plant, I’m betting that it will be in Taylor’s book. Thus far, I’ve
found data on each bit of greenery that I wanted information on.

As a writer of fiction that takes place in
Florida, I want to have the correct plant in the right place, whether it is growing
in sand, loam, red clay, rich black earth, or bogs. As Taylor demonstrates,
Florida sits at a latitude where the major deserts of our Earth occur—yet our
state is known for green luxurious growth. The humidity gifted to our state by
the Gulf Stream helps create this atmosphere and moderates temperatures that
otherwise would indeed reflect the deserts of Africa and Mexico, to name only
two. In Florida, you are no more than 100 miles from the salt water at any
point.

With Florida
Wildflowers, you don’t only get identification of species – both the Latin
and common names, you have the opportunity to learn more of this Sunshine
State. Did you know that Ocala limestone of the Eocene period (65 million years
ago) makes up the major formation of the entire state? Well, maybe you knew, but I didn’t, and I find
learning about my state through Taylor’s eyes is fun as well as enlightening.

Did you know that the hills that slope away from
Tallahassee, the Florida Capital, used to be the coastline of Florida at one
time? Anyone visiting the Capitol (if this were still the coastline) could see
water lapping away just below FAMU, (Florida Agricultural and Mechanical
University.) The soil, and therefore plant life, changes, as you travel from
North Florida on down to the coast. Are you curious to know what type of grass
is under your toes? Worried about that sticker in your ankle? Florida Wildflowers is the book for
you.

In Florida
Wildflowers, you learn that some plants have “people” names, such as Joewood,
Walter’s Groundcherry, and Godfrey’s False Dragonhead. Makes me wonder what
these and other individuals did, to have plants named after them.

While Taylor does give information on whether some
plants are edible or not, I do find myself asking that question on all Florida
flora in his book. Maybe the next version will have this, because Taylor does
believe in improving his books. Florida
Wildflowers is a second edition. For those interested in knowing if certain
plants in Florida are endemic, endangered, or threatened, this is information
was added when Taylor revised and updated his glorious book on wildflowers. In
this new edition, Taylor also added hundreds of photographs, realigned his
first book to make it more user friendly, and to reflect current terrestrial
communities and the plants growing in them.

My copy of this book is not in too good a shape
– I keep it in my vehicle in case I want to look up a bit of greenery that has
garnered my attention. I use it when writing and need to know if a particular
plant is flowering or has berries. Taylor’s book should be on everyone’s
bookshelf, tucked in a backpack, or nestled in a kayak. You can’t go wrong
having Florida Wildflowers handy.

After all, how else could you answer the
question: what’s that plant?

Florida
Wildflowers – A Comprehensive Guide is available from your favorite on-line
dealer, through University Press, and in bookstores near you.

Sunday, October 5, 2014

In the 1960’s, I remember watching a late night black and
white re-run of a 1951 movie, “The Thing,” starring James Arness. It was about
an alien being come from space who terrorizes a military outpost. I was
terrified – the only thing stopping me from having nightmares was my dad – he
could save the world, as far as I was concerned. I remember him laughing when
the alien proved to be a plant. “Well they got that right, Peggy. It’s not
going to be something from space that gets mankind, it’ll be something small.”
Then he lowered his voice and said – “Better beware, there’s a fungus amongus.”
VanderMeer exposes the fungus amongus.

Jeff VanderMeer creates a terrifying world with an economy
of language and description that paints more than speaks. I began reading
Annihilation while sitting on the front porch of my son’s house south of
Crawfordville. Sounds of insects, amphibians, and an owl or two, combined with
rustling pine needles, and a night so dark and heavy with humidity, that the
air coated my skin. Fear pulsed through my veins. The only light in sight came
from a tiny lamp clipped to my book. Was not long before I went inside. Found I
was spending more time checking what might be in the bushes and nearby swamp,
thanks to Vandermeer, than reading. That’s the kind of book the author writes.
Intense. Thoughtful. And scary as all get out!

Start with Area X – an amorphous area of land along the
Forgotten Coast of North Florida. Add the topographical features that already
exist, then throw in Vandermeer’s imagination, and you have an exquisite tale
guaranteed to make a person think twice before entering the wilds of Saint
Marks or forests of Apalachicola.

Area X has only one entrance, which is heavily guarded by a
branch of the government called Southern Reach. The Southern Reach determines
who and when teams infiltrate the area for research. Four women, known only by
their occupation, make up the 12th team: a biologist, an
anthropologist, a surveyor, and a psychologist. The reader learns that no one
knows everything that has been found in Area X, and this is not the 12th
team. There are secrets within secrets, because no one wants to share all that
they know.We experience Area X through
the eyes of the biologist, a woman who divulges her life piecemeal through the
book, but never her name. She is, as are the other women, a tool. An implement
used by VanderMeer and the Southern Reach.

As the reader experiences the incongruences that make up
this region, we are drawn in and sucked down into VanderMeer’s world, into the
tower that is not a tower, with writing on the walls made of phosphorescent
plants, into the reeds that are now home to an indefinable monstrosity, to the
vision of a dolphin with a far too human eye, and the diminishing of the investigating
team until all we see is – well – fear, and the knowledge at the end of the
first book in the Southern Reach Trilogy, that Area X is not finished, and the
fat lady may never sing.

I have started reading and listening to “Authority,” the
second book in VanderMeer’s Trilogy, and sense this is every bit as good as
“Annihilation.” Run to your local bookstore, Barnes and Noble, Books a Million,
wherever you like to pick up your books. go on Amazon.com. Listen to “Annihilation”
on Audible. This book is a Southern classic. I hope the studios that have a
movie option on VanderMeer’s books, do make a movie of it. I’ll be there,
watching through my fingers, holding my breath, and shoving back the scream
building in my throat – just like when reading the book.

Jeff VanderMeer is a three-time winner,
thirteen-time finalist for the World Fantasy Award. His Wonderbook: The
Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction, the world's first
full-color, image-based writing guide, is now out from Abrams Image. His
Southern Reach trilogy (Annihilation, Authority, Acceptance), will be published
by FSG, HarperCollins Canada, and The Fourth Estate (UK) in 2014, as well as 12
other countries. The film rights have been optioned by Scott Rudin Productions,
and Paramount Pictures. Prior novels include the Ambergris Cycle (City of
Saints & Madmen, Shriek: An Afterword, and Finch) and Veniss Underground.
His short fiction has appeared in American Fantastic Tales (Library of
America), Conjunctions, and many others. He writes nonfiction for The
Washington Post, the LA Times, The Guardian, and many others. He has lectured
at MIT and the Library of Congress and helps run the Shared Worlds teen
SF/Fantasy writing camp out of Wofford College. With his wife Ann he has
coedited several iconic anthologies, most recently The Time Traveler's Almanac
and The Weird. You can contact him at vandermeercreative.com.